in Kathmandu!

oh wowowowowoowow, the trip has been awesome so far

First, the greatest layover ever in Hong Kong.
Then 2 really nice days hanging with the Days in Singapore
And yesterday a super fun night in Bangkok with new all-Canuck friends Terry, Mike, little Darcy, Natasha and Samir. The short version:  got spiffed up and went to the Long Table, which is on the 26th floor. We were there in time for Happy Hour, so me n Terry drank half price prosecco. Yippeee! My fave! (Astute readers will recall that I see this as a sure sign that Gods love me when sparkley wine is on sale.) After much too much fun with a truly INCREDIBLE sky line view, we headed to N and S's swanky-assed apartment. It's only $2000 a month, but WOWOWOWOW, it would cost $6000 a month for similar in Vancouver. There, we had incredible Thai take out (cost = $8 for all of us), gin and tonics (another of my fave drinks) and smoked a hookah with rose-flavoured tobacco.
Too bad I don't have my photo-posting thing to put pics up now, so this will have to wait.

I'm now in Kathmandu, Nepal. Major disappointment today:  it was cloudy so did not see the Himalayas, namely Mt Everest, as I flew by. Pretty bummed, but maybe in a month?
Leaving in the morning for 18 days of trekking. SUPER cool.

Hong Kong!

I am posting this from Singapore.

On the way here, I spent a 9 hour layover in Hong Kong. I was last there in 1988, so thought it would be cool to see how it had changed. And WOW, has it ever!
When I was there back then, Hong Kong was the first place I visited as I traveled solo across Asia. It was foreign, confusing, had NO English and smelled like Chinese 5 spice. It was the first place I had ever seen beggars with deformities.
Well now, HK has english signs everywhere, directing you to any landmark you might like. The people speak english. There is a mass transit system that takes 24 minutes from the airport to downtown. The people seem to be from all over the world, not only China. It was modern and clean, and lots of new construction.

I especially liked the advertising for all sorts of things.

winging into Hong Kong

Hong Kong

easy peasy! English signs pointing your way to any landmark

Hong Kong

hangover from SARS and H1N1

view from Victoria Peak

slope stability works

more slope stabilisation stuff

lion statue

me, on Victoria Peak

No Smoking lion

found a display about dim sum. THis kid REALLY likes it

cleaning the photo display

I was highly disturbed by how much this child enjoys meat balls

is it a cloud?

I have NO idea why the Marriott chose to advertise with a spider as big as a pillow

Victoria Peak tram

Hong Kong

will be sterilised every 2 hours? A method of money laundering?

Hong Kong skyline from the Star Ferry

and now we know what Clark Kent wears

food experimentation in HK. Had to wait for the mochi to thaw for 20 mins. Tasty, but :(

skyline on Tsim Sha Sui side, HK harbour

construction on reclaimed land

Personal Best!

YYAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!
New personal best today in the Royal Victoria Half Marathon! I took nearly 2.5 minutes off my previous best time at this distance. AND it was my 6th half marathon in 6 months.

Celebrated with champagne and OJ with the girls, of course. Pretty sure there's electrolytes in champagne, right?



Queen Super Wonderlust, aka. Carol



Susie Sunshine

Reggie the GILF and Core Queen Cathy

Himalayan Itinerary

This is mostly for Mom and Dad, but now anyone can know exactly where I plan for be in late Oct and into Nov.

Itinerary for Nepal and Bhutan:


17/10/2010 – Day 01: Arrive in Kathmandu and rest

18/10/2010 – Day 02: Kathmandu- Shyabru Beshi 9-10 hours by jeep

19/10/2010 – Day 03: Trekking to Gatlang 6:00 hrs

20/10/2010 – Day 04: Gatlang to Tatooani 6 hrs

21/10/2010 – Day 05: Tatopani to Thuman 5:30 hrs

22/10/2010 – Day 06: Thuman to Briddim 6 hrs

23/10/2010 – Day 07: Bridim to Lama Hotel 5:30 hrs

24/10/2010 – Day 08: Lama hotel to Langtang 5 hours

25/10/2010 – Day 09: Langtang to Kyanjing Gompa 3 hours

26/10/2010 – Day 10: Kyanjing Gompa: explore day

27/10/2010 – Day 11: Kyanjing Gompa- Lama Hotel: 5-6 hours

28/10/2010 – Day 12: Lama Hotel - Thulo Shyabru: 5-6 hours

29/10/2010 – Day 13: Thulo Shyabru- Shing gompa: 3-5 hours

30/10/2010 – Day 14: Shin gompa- Gosainkunda: 5-6 hours

31/10/2010 – Day 15: Gosainkunda- Ghopte: 6-8 hours

01/11/2010 – Day 16: Ghopte- Malemchigaon: 6-7 hours

02/11/2010 – Day 17: Malemchigaon - Tarke Ghyang: 5-7 hours

03/11/2010 – Day 18: Tarke Ghyang- Sermathang: 3-5 hours

04/11/2010 – Day 19: Sermathang- Malemchi Puul Bazaar -Katmandu : 3-4 hours; 2 hour jeep

05/11/2010 – Day 20: Observe exciting Diwali (lighting festival), which is really interesting

06/11/2010 – Day 21: Again observe the exciting Diwali (lighting festival)

07/11/2010 – Day 22: Last day of Diwali festival, which will be celebrate as brother and sister festival as a part of the Diwali festival

Bhutan:
08/11/2010 – Day 23: Fly from Kathmandu, arrive Paro – Drive to Thimphu . Overnight Hotel Thimphu.

09/11/2010 - Day 24: Thimphu S/S and afternoon drive to Punakha.

10/11/2010 - Day 25: Morning Drive to Bumthang.

11/11/2010 - Day 26: Bumthang S/S overnight in Bumthang.

12/11/2010 - Day 27: Bumthang Excursion to Ura back Bumthang.

13/11/2010 - Day 28 Bumthang – Gantey – Wangdue. Overnight at hotel in Wangdue.

14/11/2010 - Day 29: Wangdue – Thimphu – Paro

15/11/2010 - Day 30: Paro – Excursion to Taktsang.

16/11/2010 - Day 31: Excursion to Chela Pass and visit Nunnery and afternoon drive back to Paro

17/11/2010 – Day 32: Paro valley sightseeing and hike to Taksang Monastery (Tiger nest)

18/11/2010 – Day 33: Depart from Paro - Kathmandu and rest

19/11/2010 – Day 34: Fly back to Bangkok/Kuala Lumpur/Singapore

BIG Update

I've been hopeless at writing on this blog for ages, so here's a biggie update!

I'm off to Asia on Tuesday at 2 AM. I'm going for 8 weeks!! One of my old high school galpals lives in Singapore, so I'm going to stay with her for a bit. Then she's connected me to her friend Terry who is currently living in Bangkok, so I've got a guide with a couch lined up in Bangkok! Then it's off to Nepal for 18 days of trekking. I've wanted to go trekking in the Himalaya for about 5 years, so I'm happy I'm finally doing that. I get back to Kathmandu in time for a 3 day festival of Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights. Very cool. I love attending festivals as it is an amazing snapshot of local culture, and I am thrilled I will see this!


After Diwali in Kathmandu, I'll leave for 11 days in Bhutan, another mountain kingdom in the Himalaya. I have wanted to visit Bhutan for decades, literally, so this is HUGE for me. I had hoped to do some trekking there, as it is meant to be incredibly beautiful. But instead I'll be lucky enough to see a, you guessed it, FESTIVAL in eastern Bhutan. Bhutan is a very traditional country, unique and interesting, and not very open to the West, so I am so excited to see this place. Did you know that instead of tracking the GDP (Gross Domestic Product), they track the GDH (Gross Domestic Happiness)? How fantastic is that? Apparently the King noticed years ago that citizens of more economically successful countries were not necessarily happier, and he decided that happiness is more important than money. WOW. I cannot wait.

My friend Gary has just booked some of his trip, and will be joining me for part of the Nepal trek and for Bhutan. His friend worked with the Prince of Bhutan, so I am strongly angling for a meeting with the Prince!! hahaha, we shall see.

After Bhutan, I'll head back to Bangkok for another couple nights, and hopefully see Terry again.....if they have not yet moved away from Bangkok. (They have a great lifestyle where her husband works in internet something, so they just choose somewhere that sounds cool and live there for a few months.)

Then I've got a night planned in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I had the option of flying directly back to Singapore, but instead chose the "less good" connection to give me a night in a place I've never seen before. Fun, right?!

Then....back to Singapore. At that point, I'll have 2 1/2 weeks of holiday left, and I have made no plans so far. Maybe hang with Laura and her family? Hopefully we could do a trip to Cambodia to visit the orphanage she sponsors. Anyway, those plans will be made when the time is right.

And then I'll be back in Vancouver on Dec 8.


Update on my projects

I have 2 great projects in the works:
1. a book about the good things that come from the adversity of cancer
2. Getting Gold for Canada


The book project has been in the works for a while, but over the last couple months, I have done some wonderful and inspirational interviews. People have made gains and found things such as: more fulfilling meditation practise; the ability to love more deeply; financial freedom; improved personal relationships; changed careers; etc etc. It is great!

2. the project about Getting Gold Medals for Canada has me working with competitive and elite paralympic athletes who do nordic skiing. This started because I watched my friend Jamie guide a visually impaired skier in Whistler last spring. I watched at the categories of nordic skiing, and was fascinated watching those competitions. As usual, I met some engineers in a bar and got chatting about what I was excited about, so the idea came up that the athletes should have better equipment. And that I should find corporate sponsors to do this, AND that if these companies has engineers working there, they could have a perk of working with elite paranordic athetes. I saw it as a perfect match!
Then I sat down with Jamie and Tony, who run the local nordic ski club in Vancouver, which happens to have many of the Canadian National Paralympic Nordic team. I pitched them my idea, and they were super keen! But then it came out that most of the paranordic athletes had not accessed the research and academic resources available in the Lower Mainland. WOW, I just assumed that was something that would have already been done! So the first phase of my project is to link athletes with researchers and students in Vancouver.
I have now met a few athletes and made some incredible contacts at UBC and BCIT. I am really, really excited! I've met a gal who is doing her Ph.D. in Human Kinetics, so she has many grad students and undergrads to approach. And I got connected to the Head of the Prosthetics Dept at BCIT who was shocked to hear that our best standing athletes do not have a sport-specific prosthetic. (Fyi, standing athletes have issues with lower limbs, such as amputations.) He's going to talk with his lab, and I may also look to form a partnership with folks at UBC too. And I met another woman who is a resident in at UBC Med School in Physical Medicine (this is physiotherapy medicine, and sports med, and rehab med, and prosthetics. It's a broad field). She told me she has spoken to some of her contacts, and they are excited as it's tough to find research subjects. WHAT?!? So here I am, finding a gap in athletes' development and connecting it to a gap in related research! How great is this? I'm thrilled!

I spoke last night with Sean, who is in a wheelchair and brand new to nordic skiing, although keen to compete. He doesn't have equipment yet, or really know how to ski. But I told him he's great, as he's a raw talent. He used to play hockey at an elite level, so has the "right stuff" to be competitive. One of the other sit skiers has spent years on trial-and-error to get his sled set up, although he is now on my list to be analyzed for biomechanics, to see if he is in the most efficient position. (Seriously. This guy is the top ranked sit skier in Canada, but has NOT had analysis done to see if he is skiing as efficiently as possible.) Anyway, I'm thinking that perhaps Sean could be put into our program at an earlier stage, and maybe shorten the learning curve to become an efficient skier? He is excited about my idea!

I see HUGE potential for this project, and I am excited.
Have I mentioned I'm excited?!?!?!?    :-D


What else? Healthwise, I'm great. I have a recurrence, just a little one. Anyway, we've known about it for 2 years now, I guess. I had to meet with all sorts of specialists last year. Eventually, a treatment plan was recommended, so that I would have another blast of radioactive iodine. They did say I could take thyrogen to do this, so it wouldn't be nearly so horrible, but.... I have currently declined treatment. It's a little speck of a tumour, and we're just watching it. If it grows a bunch, or I get mets, or whatever, THEN I'll have some I131. But in the meantime, I'm healthy and happy.

Fitness wise, I've set a goal for myself of running a half marathon each month for a year! I have one coming up on Sunday, and that will be one a month for 6 months, so I'm halfway there. :) I'm surprised how tired I am, actually. But it's going fine.


So......that's my update. It's a long one, as I've been soooooo busy, my poor blog has been sadly neglected. Terrible.

Cool Pic




diving into Hiatt Lake, Emigrant Wilderness, California

 Without a doubt, this is the coolest picture anyone has ever made for me. Bo did it. In her spare time, on a break from being a OB/GYN in California and mother of 7 and wife, and all around Superstar.